ALL IN THE FAMILY : Kin duke it out in races for elected offices
Posted on Friday, May 9, 2008
The May 20 primary will be a family affair in at least two Arkansas counties where kin are vying for the same political office.
In Nevada County, a father, a mother and a son — who all live together — will run for Boughton Township constable in a strategy designed to deliver victory to someone in the family.
In Montgomery County, an embittered brother-in-law will oppose the incumbent coroner, his sister-in-law, furthering a 20-year grudge.
Whatever the relatives’ motives, such races are oddities in Arkansas, said Jay Barth, a professor in the Hendrix Col- lege department of politics and international relations.
Barth said family members more commonly fought over offices in the past when relatives in far-flung parts of a county lacked strong relationships because of the distance between them.
Nevada County Clerk Julie Stockton Oliver, who oversees the county’s elections, said relatives have never before sparred over the same office there during her 16 years on the job.
“It’s crazy,” she said. “I guess they want to make sure they keep it in the family.” That’s exactly the point in the constable race, said Mike, Carolyn and Clint Mullins of Prescott.
Father Mike Mullins, a Republican, has held the Boughton Township constable job since 2006.
Since then, Mullins said, he’s warred continuously with Nevada County Sheriff Bobby Carlton over compensation.
Mullins, like many constables in Arkansas, receives no pay or mileage and training reimbursements.
That doesn’t sit well with the 61-year-old, who lives off disability payments and a little cash from repairing citizens band radios.
Not only has the Nevada County Quorum Court refused Mullins’ requests to compensate him, but Carlton has accused him of incompetence and violations such as wearing his pistol outside his jurisdiction, as well.
The bad blood simmered to the point where the men now refuse to work with each other.
“The night I was sworn in I was told Mullins would be my biggest problem, and that’s been true,” Carlton said. “I don’t know what’s wrong with him. I really don’t.” So when Davey Jones, one of Carlton’s deputies and Mullins ’ Boughton Township neighbor, filed to run as a Democrat for the constable job, the Mullins family smelled a rat.
All three believe that the sheriff engineered the move to oust Mike Mullins from his post.
Jones and Carlton denied that the sheriff pressured the deputy to run for office.
Mother Carolyn Mullins, 55, and her son Clint Mullins, 29, who are also unemployed, immediately filed to run as Democrats to try to keep the nomination from going to Jones.
Both pledged to run against their household’s head if it comes to that in the Nov. 4 general election.
“It is unusual,” Carolyn Mullins said. “But we’re a close family.” Right or wrong, the gambit seems an effective political strategy, said Art English, a professor of political science at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock.
The move could force a runoff in the crowded Democratic field, English said, which includes a fourth candidate, Kevin Taylor of Prescott.
If that happens, the Mullins family could have up to three chances to defeat Jones: the primary, the runoff and the general election. Mike Mullins is unopposed on the Republican ballot.
“Either way, they’re putting their opponent through some stress,” English said. “They are giving him something to think about.” In Montgomery County, two family members are vying for the same office, but for reasons very different from the Mullins’.
Incumbent Coroner Elece Parliment will face her brotherin-law, Freddy Parliment, in the Democratic primary.
Elece Parliment is running for her fifth term as coroner. She manages the Thornton Funeral Home in Mount Ida.
Freddy Parliment has no experience in the field. He is currently on disability.
Freddy Parliment said little about why he decided to run for coroner during a telephone interview.
“I don’t like her, I need the money, and I think the people deserve better than what they got.
“ Let the best person win,” he said before hanging up the telephone.
Elece Parliment said her brother-in-law doesn’t even want the job and he’s just trying to hurt her by running.
They had a falling out about 20 years ago and haven’t spoken since, they both said.
“He’s an unhappy person,” she said. “I just hope, if he actually wins, that he can do the job.”
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